Karnataka CM asks PM to put on hold CMC award

New Delhi: Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Saturday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to keep in abeyance the "burdensome" decision of the Cauvery Monitoring Committee to give Tamil Nadu 12 TMC of Cauvery river water this month.

Shettar`s letter to the Prime Minister comes a day after the multi-state panel asked Karnataka to give Tamil Nadu 12 TMC of water during December.

"The direction of the CMC to ensure the flow of 12 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) in December is extremely burdensome on the state of Karnataka," Shettar wrote to Singh, who heads the Cauvery River Authority.

He said when his state is running short of water, "how can we be directed to ensure 12 TMC flow?"

The Karnataka Chief Minister said the latest CMC award was twice the quantity decided by the panel earlier for its December `road map.`

"Both the states would, after this release, have a shortage of approximately 47 TMC against their requirements in December...This is not an elegant situation as both the states would be dissatisfied. But in the circumstances, this seems the only pragmatic solution, the best that can be done," the CMC award read.

Under the provisions of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act, 1956, the Centre had set up of Cauvery River Authority (CRA) and CMC to implement the award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.

The CRA consists of the Prime Minister as Chairperson and Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Pudducherry as members.

The CMC is heade by the Union Water Resources Secretary and has Chief Secretaries and Chief Engineers of the four states as members.